East Midlands region receives visit from President Jon Hilton

Jon Hilton visited Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd and University of Derby, accompanied by several regional Institution colleagues. He also attended the regional Annual Dinner.

Alongside Jon Hilton were Karl Beaton BEng CEng FIMechE, Chairman East Midlands Region; Eur Ing Michael Welbourne CEng FIMechE MinstE, member of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Area committee; Bob Dewhurst CEng FIMechE, a Formula Student design judge who also sits on the Trustee Board Awards Committee; and Ben Mills, the East Midlands regional representative on the Young Members Board.

Jon was welcomed to Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd by Managing Director Richard Hunter CEng FIMechE FIET. During the morning, the party learned about the Aventra platform from Bombardier UK Head of Engineering Mark Ellis, and visited the V Shop and Crossrail production line, where they met apprentices and graduates.

Jane Sanders, Bombardier’s Regional Engineering Competency Manager was pivotal in the arrangement of the meeting and ongoing progression of the relationship with the Institution.

Jane said: “It was a pleasure to host Jon Hilton and colleagues to Bombardier Transportation and show them our award winning Aventra product family. The tour included a walk through one of the Crossrail trains, which is currently being manufactured for use on the Elizabeth Line. The team of graduates who took part in the Institution's Railway Challenge this year were very proud to show the party the locomotive and talk them through the engineering challenges they faced and the learning they achieved from taking part.”

Lara Mallett, the Institution's Business Development Manager for the Eastern and East Midlands Region, organised and attended the visits. Lara says there is a long-standing connection between Bombardier and the Institution, which in large part is thanks to the valued role of Industrial Liaison Officer (ILO). Holly Evans CEng MIMechE, a Systems Engineer at Bombardier, who currently performs this role, and her colleague and former ILO Peter Foster CEng FIMechE, were among those invited to lunch with the President and his party.

As the party moved to the University of Derby during the afternoon, there was another Institution competition to celebrate. The University took part in Formula Student for the first time in 2016. The President and his colleagues met students involved in Team Derby Motorsport and discussed the strategy for their 2017 car. There was great enthusiasm and excitement about their involvement in the competition.

Professor Angela Dean CEng FIOM3 FIMechE, Head of Apprenticeships and Quality and previously Head of the Department of Engineering, said: “It was an honour to welcome Jon Hilton and his Institution colleagues to the University of Derby. Our motorsport engineering students in particular enjoyed meeting Jon and were inspired by his motorsport and entrepreneurial success. Jon praised our emphasis on relating theory to practical application, a strategy which is fundamental to our engineering courses at the university.”

Karl Beaton complimented the students and engineers that they met and also enjoyed the tour of a new STEM facility at the University, to which industrial partners including Rolls-Royce and Lubrizol were also invited. He said: “It was great to see such enthusiastic young engineers at Bombardier proud of their cutting edge, ultra-modern trains. The University of Derby showed the exciting future of education in this country with the construction of their new STEM building. Days like this are inspirational and reinforce why I became an engineer.”

Two members of the engineering department were awarded certificates by Jon Hilton, who congratulated them on their professional registration as chartered engineers. These were Dr Patrick Barber CEng MIMechE and Martin Sole CEng MIMechE.

At the East Midlands Region annual dinner, which was held at the stunning velodrome in Derby, the University’s Formula Student race car was on show and produced a lot of interest. The evening was very well attended; the after dinner speaker was comedian Jo Caulfield. She entertained the guests with insights into their own companies, which she had gleaned from their websites, causing more than a few red faces but much hilarity.

A speaker from Macmillan Nurses was warmly supported, and guests were encouraged to donate to the charity before the evening drew to a close.